


say boom

by dirgewithoutmusic



Series: bringing the war home [11]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-19 01:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4727219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirgewithoutmusic/pseuds/dirgewithoutmusic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a different style than the other entries of this series, but I think it has a place here anyway (and I'm too lazy to edit/rewrite it into this style :) ). This a drabble I wrote awhile back for the dark haired girl Bucky takes double dating with Steve to the Stark Expo in CAtFA, the one who looks so stunningly *delighted* about the explosions on stage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	say boom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [polytropic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polytropic/gifts).



> The drabble was written in response to polytropic-liar's post here (http://ink-splotch.tumblr.com/post/84597116484/polytropic-liar-ink-splotch), which also includes a gif of the girl's aforementioned absolute delight if you wanna take a peek. 
> 
> Doctorcakeray went through the movie credits and found that her name was Connie; then Doc went through the Marvel database and found a minor character named Connie Ferrarri, who we have decided is one and the same. 
> 
> In comics canon, Connie was a defense lawyer in the New York area who (1) was romantically involved with one steve rogers, and who (2) liked to wear baggy Mets shirts as well as (3) represent a few too many criminals for Steve's righteous tastes. 
> 
> She doesn't get to date Steve in this universe, quite, and she's a delighted amateur demolitions expert instead of a lawyer-- but that's okay. Jane Foster is an astrophysicist in this verse too after all.

so this is young connie, who’s got one brother in the mob and a taste for complicated things— chemical equations and legal loopholes. she works at the library, which is where bucky met her—

choose your own reasons for bucky being there: walking a girl back there after taking her out for the cheapest but warmest coffee he could find; or looking for a book for steve, who wasn’t home sick but ought to have been after a bout of stress-induced asthma from the last 4F stamped on his forehead—bucky’s hoping if he gets a good enough book (something with ADVENTURE something with HEROISM) steve will stay home and read it instead of looking for a recruitment center that hasn’t met him yet; or maybe bucky was in there for himself, because you’ve got to hope the boy did things for himself now and then (he won’t get much chance to, later, after all), maybe he was reading a cheesy romance and grinning (this is a boy who likes other people being happy), maybe a soldier’s memoirs, maybe a cookbook because if you can’t eat three square meals a day maybe you can just dream about it, or maybe he was reading a little dostoyevsky and getting a bit of weird foreshadowing rolling up his bowed spine.

but connie, she works at the library, and she grins at her clients and keeps a couple science textbooks and research abstracts at her desk for the slow hours. when bucky asks her out she says yes, because the boy looks like an explosion waiting to happen

and they go, and bucky’s every inch the rakish gentleman he’s trying for, and steve doesn’t want to be there, but he’s cute, sure; the other girl on the date is nice, not really connie’s type; but then the lights spark and howard yelps on stage and suddenly connie is no longer even considering labeling this evening a regret

she slips away from the others after the show _, to powder my nose_ she says and speeds away before the other girl can offer her company. connie sneaks around the back of the platform and through security (beaming all the way, amazing how useful that is) and says _oy howard!_ as soon as she’s within shouting distance

howard turns, with annoyance that quickly turns into a considering smile (pretty girl; maybe she’d like to fondue sometime).

 _mr. stark_ , says connie. _i can do that better._

_the lights exploding you mean? i’ve got a fellow on that already, sweetheart, don’t fret._

_no, i can make the explosions better. bigger._ she grins, as cheeky as she knows how. _i can help you steal the show, mr. stark. any show you want._

when connie gets back to her date, she has a business card tucked in her sock. she left a few napkins scribbled with equations and fixture designs in stark’s hands and her mind’s still mostly back there when steve decides to leave them for another registration attempt (his last, his very last until he stumbles into shield’s arms decades later, and signs on for another war because he doesn’t know anything else, even now as a skinny boy being beat up in back alleys he doesn’t know anything else)

connie considers stopping her own evening there— they’re a man short and she’s got explosions to play with in her brooklyn backyard. but bucky turns to her, eyes bright, and she remembers this boy is an explosion, too. the other girl on the date grins wide as bucky slings an arm around each of their shoulders and ah maybe, maybe she is connie’s type after all

connie has the afternoon off tomorrow; howard’s projects can wait til then.

when she gives howard stark her designs, she makes him come down to her library to get them. connie figures he can afford the cab fare. howard reads through them at a library table, pushing them around with almost reverent fingers. she’ll never see howard treat a person with such care, not in all the years she will know him.

 _miss ferrarri_ , he says. _did you know there’s a war on?_

 _well i noticed the handsome boys in uniform,_ she tells him, smirking. (her brother is overseas. she mailed him a parcel of scarves and fruitcake that morning)

_would you like a job?_

**Author's Note:**

> And yes, this is why Peggy calls Maria Connie in "that's my official statement." I like to think Connie and Peggy (and Angie) were all dear friends who tormented Howard together.


End file.
